The Great Bumper Sticker Poll

Each place seems to have a particular style when it comes to bumper stickers. In Utah, I mostly remember the kind that show off how many kids (and pets) people had, and a lot of “my child was student of the week . . .” When we spent a year in Washington during the Bush era, I saw endless variations on “War is not Pro-Life” and “A Village in Texas is Missing its Idiot.” Despite Italy’s low birthrate, the favorites there seemed to be the little yellow pseudo road signs suction-cupped to the window and proclaiming, “bebe a bordo.” Bumper stickers in San Diego are mostly anathema, due to everyone’s cars being too nice.

We’ve never had that problem, but we’ve never really been into bumper stickers either. Until now. Here’s our new (to us) car here in Florida:

No, it doesn’t appear to cry out for a bumper sticker on first blush. But if you look more closely, you’ll see the following:

In case you can’t read it, this remnant is evidence that our car used to look like this:

OK, well if not the car, at least the bumper sticker.

Now, there’s nothing particularly offensive about this sticker (and evidently our car’s original owner read it with a certain subtle and self-deprecating irony), but it’s not quite our style. It was apparently also not the style of the Sikh graduate student from whom we bought the car a month ago, and whose efforts at removing said sticker left it in its current unfortunate state. Tony and I also spent an hour or so with soap, water, and razor blades, without appreciable results.

So we’re left with plan B: put another bumper sticker on top of it. Here’s where you come in. What bumper sticker should we choose? The following poll is just a place to start. If it’s not on the list, feel free to tell me the best (G-rated) bumper sticker you’ve ever seen.

I’m not a fan of bumper stickers. They’re only funny or clever the first time around, and then you’re “stuck” with them. You could try “Goo Gone” (often available at a Dollar Store) or peanut butter, or some type of oil to get the residue off.

Bridget, I’m getting all of those bumper stickers, pasting them on a junker car, painting it turquoise (in the spots without the stickers), getting super base speakers and playing Rachmaninoff. Nerds need to have more fun. Wanna come cruising?

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

We've lived on five continents, and we're still in search of a dream to call home. In the meantime, I blog about the joys, disasters, and embarrassing missteps of expat life, educating my third culture kids, and our roller-coaster journey to Italian citizenship.

In my free time I like eating cheese, reading books, and seeing the world. Current adventure: Amsterdam!